PepsiCo has considered the area a strategic market for decades, said Karim Elfiqi, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Other major brands have formed a more recent focus on the Middle East. The Lego Group opened a Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dubai in 2019, citing the size of the region’s young population. Advertising giant WPP has long worked in Saudi Arabia through units such as Ogilvy and GroupM, but in 2021 established a joint venture with a local company to create ICG Saudi Arabia, a communications and media company based in Saudi Arabia. Regional hospitalitySome executives said certain facets of business dealings in the Middle East are different than in other parts of the world.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 17, 2024 07:31 UTC